A Manhattan man charged with first degree murder and child abuse pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning in the Riley County District Courthouse.
Andrew Gibson, 25, appeared for his arraignment cuffed and in an orange jumpsuit.
His jury trial is scheduled to begin on May 3, 2017, and is expected to last three days.
Gibson is charged with the death of 3-month-old Serenity Reich, who was found unresponsive on May 5 in Gibson’s apartment on the 500 block of Stone Creek Drive in Manhattan after he called 911.
On Nov. 4 during Gibson’s preliminary hearing, Riley County Police Department Detective Bryan Johnson testified that Gibson was watching after Reich and two other children in his apartment that evening. The mother was in Topeka for the day at the time of the incident.
Gibson and the mother had a relationship. The infant and another child in the apartment were the mother’s from a prior relationship, while the other child was Gibson’s also from a prior relationship.
Gibson and the mother met when she was pregnant with Reich, according to a source.
After RCPD patrolman Garrett Lloyd testified he found Gibson in the apartment kneeling over Reich and weeping, Johnson later testified that Gibson told conflicting stories of what happened.
Initially, Gibson told the detective it was an “ordinary day” and that after he’d fed the baby and put her in her crib to sleep, she was found unresponsive when she was checked on two hours later. But after further questioning, the story changed.
The second version of Gibson’s account stated that one of the other children fell over the infant. After that, Gibson later said he’d accidentally rolled over her while they were both sleeping in a bed.
It was after these statements Gibson was arrested.
During booking, Johnson said Gibson asked to speak to him. When he did, Johnson told the court Gibson admitted to him that he hadn’t slept for two days leading up to the night of May 5, and when he finally did fall asleep, he was awoken by the cries of the infant. Then Gibson told Johnson he forced her head into a mattress for one minute then stopped what he was doing and told Johnson he “realized I was hurting my baby girl.”
Johnson told the court Gibson said he’d “went to a dark place I thought I left a long time ago.”
An autopsy completed on May 7 in Kansas City revealed small marks on the infant’s scalp and results indicated Reich could have died from asphyxiation, as a result of her head being forcibly pressed down upon.
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